BERA Logistics and Research Centre on Svalbard (Old Norse: she-bear) is a new infrastructure of the University of Silesia (the leader unit) and six other research units, which was established as a result of years of efforts by the Polish polar community to support logistics and science and research activities carried out with the city of Longyearbyen as the base of operations.
At the end of 2023, after 3 years of efforts, the Centre for Polar Studies (CSP) in cooperation with the Polish Polar Consortium finalised the initiative to create and maintain a logistics and research centre on Svalbard, which began its operation in Longyearbyen in March 2024.
The agreement to establish a Centre for Polar Studies Team for the BERA Logistics and Research Centre on Svalbard was signed by 7 research institutions: the University of Silesia in Katowice (leader), Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, and the University of Wrocław. The partners undertook to finance BERA Centre activities and assist in maintaining the centre for the following 10 years.
Research and logistics support offered by the BERA Centre is addressed to all members of the Polish Polar Consortium, other research institutions carrying out research on Svalbard, and international institutions. The units co-financing the BERA Centre are institutions with university research stations, the year-round Polish Polar Station HORNSUND (Institute of Geophysics PAS) and a large research infrastructure (e.g. r/v Oceania from the Institute of Oceanology PAS), which have struggled for years to conduct research on Svalbard as a result of rising market prices and Norwegian government policy. The current cooperation opportunity has a positive impact on the effective management of financial resources, research, and further development.
The Centre for Polar Studies and the Polish Polar Consortium are members of the international consortium Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) where they actively cooperate with the international community within working groups and have a real influence on the shaping of research policy on Svalbard (Dariusz Ignatiuk, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Silesia and Chairman of the Centre for Polar Studies and the Polish Polar Consortium is on the SIOS Board as Vice-Chairman).
BERA Centre’s activity began in 2023 and included:
- research carried out thanks to the object infrastructure and equipment of the BERA Centre;
- logistics, i.e. storage, and transport of expeditionary cargo within the city, air and sea ports of Longyearbyen, the possibility to use the workshop for repair of research and transport equipment;
- education, teaching activities, and science communication thanks to the available office, conference, and lab space for educational workshops, as well as research and business meetings.
The BERA Centre aims to work closely with the SIOS consortium, including, among other things, making the infrastructure available through SIOS programmes to a wide range of foreign scientists (including 28 SIOS members from 10 countries), which was finalised in mid-January (https://sios-svalbard.org/SupportFromMembers).
The BERA Centre already plays an important role in coordinating the conduct of research and logistics in the Svalbard area. Most of the teams conducting research on Svalbard reach the Arctic via Longyearbyen and start their preparations for fieldwork here and conduct research in the Longyearbyen area with support from the BERA Centre. In the future, the BERA Centre is expected to grow together with the increase in the number of scientists and ongoing projects. International cooperation with Norway, Lithuania, and Italy has already been established, thanks to which the internationalisation of activities and planning of joint research projects is taking place.
The activities of the BERA Centre are also in line with the implementation of the Polish Polar Policy, including:
- growing the position of Poland in the Arctic as an active and responsible partner in the region;
- increasing the involvement of Polish representatives in the work conducted by various international organisations concerning the Arctic region.
Planned and implemented activities as part of the BERA Centre can be divided into three fundamental tasks:
I. Conducting research and monitoring:
- carrying out research using the measuring equipment at the BERA Centre (geophysical equipment, high-precision differential GPS, ice and ground drills, automatic meteorological stations, snowmobiles, boats, marine probes, etc.);
- a cryosphere monitoring system (based on the continuation of the CRIOS project until 2029) distributed along the west coast of Spitsbergen from Hornsund to Ny-Alesund (in Polish-Norwegian cooperation);
- monitoring of terrestrial ecosystems;
- marine monitoring on waters surrounding Svalbard and in fjords;
- research on snow cover and glaciers using the equipment of the BERA Centre.
As part of the infrastructure of the BERA Centre, a laboratory will be set up in 2025 to allow pre-processing of collected samples (water, sediments, rocks, etc.) to reduce their volume and size, perform preliminary analyses and prepare them for transport to Poland (including freezing and storing ice and snow samples).
The research will be carried out based on acquired external project funds (National Science Centre, Research Council of Norway, European Space Agency, SIOS, Horizons Europe) such as the Liquidice project (2025-2028, budget of EUR 7.5 million, Horizon Europe).
II. Logistical and organisational support for research:
- logistical and organisational support for Polish university research stations, i.e.: Adam Mickiewicz University Polar Station, Nicolaus Copernicus University Polar Station, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Polar Station;
- support of the activities of the Polish Polar Station HORNSUND of the Institute of Geophysics PAS;
- organisation of field measurements (assistance, sampling, equipment servicing, taking measurements) in the central Spitsbergen region (using the infrastructure of the BERA Centre, among others. e.g. snowmobiles, boats, and measurement equipment).
The logistics and organisation of the project are funded by the Centre for Polar Studies and external projects.
III. Education and networking between Polish and foreign partners:
- organisation of industry meetings of the Polish Polar Consortium partners with foreign partners;
- organisation of meetings/workshops as part of the SIOS Polar Night Week 2025 conference;
- international cooperation with, among others, working groups of the SIOS consortium;
- organisation of trainings and workshops for students and doctoral students (continuation of activities from 2024 within the BioGeoEko workshop conducted in the Arctic by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, among others).
Support for education and networking is funded by the Centre for Polar Studies, the Polish Polar Consortium and external projects.
Dariusz Ignatiuk, PhD from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Silesia, Chairman of the Centre for Polar Studies, talks about calving glaciers, the ‘high season’ in the Arctic, and… encounters with polar bears in a podcast – a conversation with the Media Communications Centre of the University of Silesia.
